www.kentuckytourism.com Archives - Jim Murty’s TravelTravelTravel

Trump rolling out Kentucky barrels for Scotch whisky

1st May 20261st May 2026 funtime65

And because we (and King Charles) have his ear Donald Trump is rolling out Kentucky barrels for Scotch whisky.

The US President is the toast of his late beloved mother Mary’s Scots homeland today after lifting prohibitive tariffs on uisce beatha.

Because he told us of ‘Scotland’s ability to work with the Commonwealth of Kentucky on Whiskey and Bourbon.

‘In that there had been great Inter-Country Trade, especially having to do with the Wooden Barrels used.’

A toast to Trump

This year’s blond: ‘The Donald’ in New York

All very timely too as Favourite Cousin, New York Kath and Kentucky Cousin-in-law Mark fly in to see us in North Berwickety.

And we will be breaking out the Woodford Reserve he first introduced me too, and in front of tomorrow’s Kentucky Derby too.

The truth is that almost everyone who has enjoyed a drap of Scotch will also be drinking in the best of Kentucky too.

Because ex-bourbon barrels are used to mature over 90% of all scotch whisky today.

We have, of course, the half-Scottish 45th and 47th President to thank for cutting the cost of our national drink.

A New Deal

But it his predecessor, the 32nd President, Franklin D. Roosevelt who made it all possible.

When he stipulated as part of his New Deal that all bourbon whiskey barrels must br single-use barrels.

Which created a supply of barrels for Scots to pounce on to store their liquid gold.

And so Kentucky barrels became the standard containers for Scotch ever since.

Gracias amigos

Best family bar none: Johnnie Fox’s in Dublin mountains

Enhanced further by Spain’s decision in the Eighties that all sherry must be bottled on home soil, taking their casks off the market.

The rest as they say is history and science.

And for that bit we’ll turn to the whisky attraction experts this week.

The distilleries, the Scotch Whisky Experience on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile and the Johnnie Walker Experience, on the capital’s Princes Street.

And now that The Donald is channeling his Scots half we humbly implore that he looks again at the ban on Scottish sheep lungs.

An integral part of our national dish haggis.

Because we know he takes calls from journalists… and reads Jim Murty’s TravelTravelTravel.com.

SLÁINTE AND MEET YOU IN THE BAR

America, Countries, Europe, Ireland, Music, UK

Mayday Bravo

1st May 20221st May 2022 funtime65

And whether you’re keeping the red flag flying here, celebrating the Internationale or just twirling around a maypole it’s Mayday Bravo today.

It was, of course, an Irishman, Jim Connell, who came up with the emotive words in 1889 to go with the tune O Tannenbaum.

He had been travelling by train, where you can do a lot of your thinking, in London.

So to mark May Day we’ll revive our Rainy Days and Songdays occasional series with these May Day tunes.

Way to go, Joe

Joe Hill – Joan Baez: And this workers anthem relates to a union leader, framed on a murder charge and executed in Salt Lake City.

But the organiser stands for everyman and of course returns to the narrator in a dream.

And in typical American storytelling style it covers the geography of the whole country… from San Diego up to Maine.

Lennon doctrine

Working Class Hero – John Lennon: They were more Lennon than Lenin in Prague during Soviet rule.

When they would congregate at the Lennon wall to protest.

Lennon, the Working Class Hero from Liverpool, has influenced as many if not more around the world from Hamburg to New York and beyond.

Tennessee tunes

Sixteen Tons – Tennessee Ernie Ford: This ditty of a song with the catchy refrain derives from Kentucky’s Merle Travis in 1947.

And the line ‘You load sixteen tons and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt” came from a letter written by Travis’s brother John.

We’ve taken Tennessee Ford’s 1955 version which hit the top of the Billboard charts and was inducted into the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry.

The New Boss

Won’t Get Fooled Again – The Who: And the Cockney Four whose shows were as much about menace as music nail it here.

And they captured the working class fascination of the Mods in Quadrophenia in their odyssey to Brighton.

But it’s this anthem against The Man and its clarion call: ‘Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.’

Lady Donna

She Works Hard For The Money – Donna Summer: Now you might not associate the Queen of Disco with a societal message.

But the New Yorker penned this after seeing a toilet attendant asleep on her shift at a post-Grammy event in West Hollywood.

And a reminder too for all that while music is replete with messages of working men, working women have had it just as bad and worse.

America, Countries, Culture

Native American signs point the way

16th April 202116th April 2021 funtime65

I’d advise anyone who is thinking about taking a summer out before work to spend it in ‘At or about the great hill’. Or Massachusetts to you and me!

You see, we all know more Native American language than we thought.

But imagine if somebody came to your country and changed all the names of the places which the settlers did.

AIANTA, the American Indian Alaska Native Tourism Association, have got us on board for their initiative Mapping Indigenous Place Names.

Where is..?

Now as the United States took shape and they formed new settlements they went for names from the Old World and then just put New in front of them.

Some though were more inventive and took Native American names.

So, let’s play a game of what does that American state mean?

Rivers run through it

All kinds of everythng with Carol Dana, language master for Penobscot Nation

Starting with A, of course, and Alaska is from the Aleut word alexsxaq, meaning ‘the object towards which the action of the sea is directed’.

K is for Kentucky, a hallowed place in American Country music, is Iroquoian for ‘at the meadow’ or ‘on the prairie’.

While Michigan who we met up again with this week at MTM21 and are close to welcoming us all back, nods to the Ottawa mishigami, ‘large water.’

Our magical Mississippi, whose old man river just keeps rolling, is derived from the Algonquian language Ojibwe. meaning ‘big river’…

And yes, there’s a theme here.

Utah, another we caught up with at MTM21 and where we’ll visit after the American Travel Fair, IPW, means ‘high up’. Naturally!

Follow the trail

When we all get travelling again we should definitely add Native American experiences to our lengthening list.

Helpfully AIANTA has done the heavy lifting for us and pointed these information packs our way.

Top Ten Experiences: https://www.aianta.org/ten-native-american-tourism-experiences/

Pre-Columbian Sites: https://www.aianta.org/pre-columbian-sites-in-the-us/

Native American Tours: https://www.aianta.org/native-american-tours/.

Must fly, I’m being called back to ‘the Place Where The Scary One Breathes Fire’, sometimes called ‘Home’.